Copyright Misconceptions – Getty Images Copyright 101 pdf

Getty Images has released a paper, titled Copyright 101. Think you are up to speed with copyright? Then answer true or false to these questions:

1. If an image is on the Internet, then it is in the public domain and I don’t require the photographer’s permission to use it?

2. The photo you want to use doesn’t contain a copyright notice, so it is okay to take a copy of it from the web site?

3. You are not going to profit from the usage, so it is A-okay to use the photo in question?

4. You found this great photo online and are going to use it as a base for a graphic, which you will use as a new logo on your web site. Because you are altering it so much, you don’t need to pay the photographer?

5. You stumbled across a photographers’ online stock archive and you can download low-res photos for free! Surely it must be okay to use them if the photographer lets you do that?

1. False.

Do I really need to explain why this is false? Just because it is on the Internet does not make it available for free usage. And that is all I am going to say on this one.

2. False.

Photographers are not required to have a copyright notice on an image for it to be copyrighted. In fact, if you ever find an image that you want to use for personal or business, you should always assume it is copyrighted, contact the photographer and pay for a license to use it.

3. False.

Just because you aren’t going to make any money doesn’t give you the right to use an image created by a photographer without their permission. Far from it.

4. False.

5. False.

The reason the photographer is providing low-res downloads is so you can view an image for review purposes. This doesn’t give you the right to use the photo in any way.

For more information on copyright, get the Getty Images Copyright 101 PDF.